Held in the amazing setting of Olmeca Plage not he left side of the Dnipro river, in the resort beach area this event was the brainchild of Eduard and his team. The aim is to bring together former competitors and now friends to celebrate the Eurovision experience and perform for the public.

We were invited to the pre-press event this evening and after a brief press conference we had an opportunity to have a quick chat with the artists who were there. Complimentary food and drink was served for all the invited guests and they all seemed to then have great fun taking selfies…

Catch ups with Poli, Bojana, Nina, Eldar, Emmelie and of course Eduard can be found here

Photos from the event prior to the concert may be found here;

Check back later for the filmed performances live from the stage

With grateful thanks to Eduard Romanyuta and his team for the personal invite

Istanbul, 2004, Ruslana winns with the song "Wild dances" and the first blue and yellow Eurovision heart shaped symbol.
Stockholm 2016, Jamala winns woith the song "1944" and Kyiv is again hosting the massive music event of Europe.
A lot of things have changed during these 12 years, but what stays the same is the thing that the Eurovision song contest starts new technological and musical trends every year. The broadcaster of the contest and the hosting city have put much effort to it.

This year a public competition between cities to host the contest was held.
6 cities competed for the right to host the song contest: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Odessa, Kherson. According to the results the capital city was chosen to host the event on one of the biggest venues in Ukraine - Arena.
The executive supervisor of the Eurovision Jon Ola Sand says: “I had an opportunity to see the Arena in the end of July and I think that it is great because it can adjust to the Eurovision, but not vice versa.” Here is the result on the photo.
The longest Red Carpet in the history of the Eurovision 2017, which is 265 m.long, will be located next to the Mariinsky palace, where the Opening Ceremony of the contest took place in 2005.
Besides the official fan-zone of the Eurovision Village, the administration of the city opened other 4 fan-zones on Troyitska, Poshtova, Sofiyska and Mykhailivska squares.
The stage of this year’s Eurovision contest weighs 30 tons and has 350 sq.m performance planform. The height of the screen, which is the part of the stage, is 11 metres and is 70 metres long. This is the biggest screen ever built in Ukraine.
The central part of the stage is called “beehive” construction, and it allows the separate parts of the stage to go up and down during the show. This so-called “beehive” has a fixed 1D camera, which allow to show the stage from above. Moreover, there is another camera inside the stage, which can move and hide under or rise above it.

For the first time:
● In last 5 years he Eurovision will start on Sunday, instead of Monday. Thus, it will last for two full weeks.
● A song by Naviband was sung in Belarusian language
● Three men Volodymyr Ostapchuk, Oleksandr Skichko and Tymur Miroshnichenko became the show hosts.
● The Croatian participant Jasques Houdek will sing a song switching voice from variety to opera.
● The official album of the Eurovision 2017 will be on sale with a limited edition of vinyl discs of four different colors.
● 34 countries took part in a pre-party in Amsterdam, which is a record number in the history of Eurovision.
● Krisitian Kostov, the contestant from Bulgaria became the first participant to be born in 2000.

Four participants became parents just before the contest. Joakim With Steen, the contestant from Norway is among them, and also Koit Toome from Estonia, Serhii Yalovytskyi from Moldova and O.Torvald frontman Zhenia Halych.
Valentina Monetta from San Marino will come to the stage of Eurovision for the fourth time, which is the record number in the history of Eurovision.This year she will sing in a duet with Jimmie Willson. It is also the 25th song on the song contest for Ralph Siegel, a famous songwriter.

Two participants of the contest this year took part in the Eurovision 2005 in Kyiv. They were Laura from Estonia and Omar Naber from Slovenia.Years before Koit Toome, Sunstroke Projet from Moldova, Serbian singer Tiana Bogicevic and a contestant from Israel Imri also took part in the contest. The girls from the O'G3NE took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007.
There will be 2 world premieres on the Eurovision 2017: Jamala’s "I Believe In U". and Ruslana’s "It`s Magical".

Today, representatives of Ukrainian and largest international press have been invited for a tour with O.Torvald band, which included visit to the "Barman Dictat", Arena City complex and Gulliver mall roof.

"Barman Dictat" (formerly 44 art club) is the location where O.Torvald gave their first ever performance in Kyiv, and still remains favourite stage of the band. Zhenya Galich and his team (who were sadly missing bass guitarist, who was sick) gave rendition of 3 songs including their most recent hit #nashilyudyvsyudy and shared with press members a few drinks.

Special guests were Bandura Style project (Yaroslav Jus and Maryna Krut) who after releasing their cover of Time yesterday were noticed by Zhenya this morning and immediately invited to Kyiv.

After a short walk we have reached location of 2005 Euroclub Arena City where band met with their fans, who, despite just a one hour notice, gathered in masses to meet their idols. Artists spoke with fans and made numerous signatures and selfies.

To finish the day, band and press members have climbed to the 34th floor of Gulliver mall - the 2nd highest building of Kyiv and got a great view on the city from there.